If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

McStays' Belongings Removed from Home

Relatives of a Fallbrook family that has been missing for over six months carried the family's belongings out of their home Tuesday.

Joseph McStay, a Fallbrook businessman; his wife, Summer; and their two children, Gianni 4, Joseph Jr. 3 were last seen Feb.4.

Summer's mother, Blanche Almanza, spoke to our media partners the North County Times as she collected clothing and some family photos from the family's home on Avocado Vista Lane.

"It's just the hardest thing a parent has to do," Almanza said. "They are a loving family, and we just want them home."

A group of people spotted on surveillance video crossing into Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing on Feb. 8 may be tied to the case but investigators aren't sure.

The television show America's Most Wanted featured the McStay family two months ago asking the country to help find them. Investigators told the North County Times they received about a dozen tips from the airing - none of which panned out.

Investigators have had few leads in the case. In May, a tip led Baja California's state police to search for the McStays in El Rosario in central Baja, after a waiter at a local restaurant claimed to have served the family. The waiter accurately described a birthmark on Joey McStay's forehead.

Detectives said there is no evidence the family had financial problems or were facing threats. Since their disappearance, investigators said, the McStays haven't used their bank accounts, credit cards or cell phones.

Relatives said it's uncharacteristic of the McStays to simply pick up and leave the country without telling family members.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the McStay family is urged to call the San Diego Sheriff's Department at (858) 974-2321 or (858) 565-5200 after-hours.

Tips can also be called in anonymously to CrimeStoppers at 888-580-TIPS(8477). A reward of up to $1,000 is being offered by CrimeStoppers for information leading to an arrest.

Re: McStays' Belongings Removed from Home

It has been six months since the McStay family vanished from their Fallbrook home, leaving behind their two dogs and a carton of eggs on the kitchen counter.

After numerous tips and dead-end leads, investigators say they are no closer to figuring out what happened to the family of four.

Everyone is just scratching their heads, said Mike McStay, who spent Tuesday cleaning out his brothers empty home in anticipation that it will be foreclosed upon sometime soon. The mortgage hasnt been paid on it since businessman Joseph McStay, 40, went missing Feb 4.

Also gone are his wife, Summer, 43, and sons Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3.

The disappearance has been one of the most buzzed about mysteries in the county this year and has been profiled on Americas Most Wanted.

The familys Isuzu Trooper was found abandoned near the San Ysidro border crossing Feb. 8, and a surveillance video shows two adults and two children walking toward the border turnstile. It was never determined if it was the McStays.

One of the more promising tips came in May, when staff at a central Baja California restaurant said they spotted the family there. U.S. investigators analyzed a map left by those diners but never found the McStays fingerprints.